Hear Her Breathe
by Shapeshifter99
Summary: Post-Failsafe. A few hours after the Team is brought back from their 'excersise', Wally has an overwhelming need... Spitfire One-shot


Another Spitfire One-Shot for you guys :3

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The night was quiet, a full moon glowing softly in the star-spattered night sky. Normally, being the scientist he was, Wally would have raced to grab his telescope and stayed up until morning studying the constellations.

But not tonight.

Restlessly, Wally turned over in his bed, punched his pillow and let out an aggravated sigh. He couldn't sleep. The failed exercise had happened mere hours ago, and Wally was haunted by the memories of it.

He kept telling himself that it hadn't been real, that the only thing that had happened was M'gann losing control and taking over the psychic exercise, trapping the whole Team in a monstrous nightmare they all believed was real.

Ever since he had tried, and failed, to fall asleep, it kept flashing in his mind. One scene in particular, to be exact.

The white landscape, the easy confidence as they faced off with the aliens, even though one blast from their ships would've killed them.

Then, Artemis calling to the rest of the Team, telling them to get back to the bio-ship as she covered them. The horrible zapping sound and yellowish ray that had shot towards her, faster than he could run.

The momentary view of her skeleton before she dissipated entirely. The momentary shock, the feeling of her being cut off from the mental link, and M'gann's anguished cry.

Then the sudden, awful pain as he realized that she was gone. Forever. That he would never hear her mock him again, or tell him to shut up and get moving, or even her groans of disgust as he ate as fast as he could.

He hadn't realized a yell of his own had escaped him, until Aqualad had brought them all back to reality by snapping at them to get back in the bioship, though his grief was evident.

They had complied, and retreated after the Atlantean defeated the last of the trio that had attacked them.

Unable to express himself, Wally had let his pain out through anger, yelling and slamming his fists into the bio-ships control panel, while Miss Martian cried and Kaldur, Superboy-Connor- and Robin remained silent.

Then, he remembered the sudden release of grief, the hope that had filled him as he had realized that because she might have survived, only to be shot down again as they arrived on the mother-ship, and she wasn't there.

He and Rob had 'died', only to awaken in the real world.

The first thing he felt when he spotted the blonde archer he had thought dead, crashing relief had over-whelmed him, until he barely felt like he could stand.

But that had been hours ago, and lingering doubt and panic had wormed its way into the red-haired speedster's mind, telling him that she wasn't safe.

As the memories flashed through his brain again, he let out a pathetic whimper, and clapped his hands over his ears in an effort to make it stop.

He tried to fight the rising panic, his logical brain trying to reason with what he had seen, and what he knew.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.

Zipping out of bed, he changed into day clothes as quickly as he could, grabbed his home keys and was out the door, headed towards the nearest Zeta beam teleporter.

He screeched to a halt in front of the abandoned photo booth in a deserted alley way and slipped inside it, practically vibrating with tension as the scanner took its sweet time.

"_Recognized. Kid Flash, B03._"

Wally closed his eyes as bright light flashed and felt his particles disassemble before being transferred Mount Justice.

He had barely been put back together before he was racing through the spacious cave, speeding through the hollowed stone hallways as he ran towards Artemis' room.

He started to slow as he neared the door, half-wanting for her to not wake up.

Soon, he was in front of it. Tentatively, he leaned against the door, his ear pressed against it.

There was a moment of pure silence, and then, he heard someone exhale softly before taking in a deep breath.

Wally let out a deep sigh, half-realizing how lucky it was that Artemis had decided to stay at the Cave for the night. He guessed she had wanted to face her parents even less than he had.

For a few moments, he just stood there, listening to the archer breathe. Sometimes, another brain was yelling at him, asking him what the hell he was doing, standing outside of the room of a girl who hated him, doing something practically stalkerish, but the other half of the time, he was even tempted to open the door, just a crack, to see her face.

He briefly pondered what she looked like asleep, his mind conjuring her relaxed, tanned face, her grey eyes closed in easy rest as her blonde hair for once out of its tight ponytail lay on the pillow, tangled, around her face.

In the next moment, he was mentally berating himself, telling himself that he should be annoyed at the archer for some stupid reason or other.

But the psychic exercise had shaken him, making him realize how painful it would be to lose someone he… Cared about.

For a second, Wally wondered at how he had used to imagine that he would never get beyond mutual respect with Artemis, but was once again berating himself a heartbeat later.

_It's just the exercise messing with your brain._ He told himself firmly. _You're tired, physically and emotionally, so my mind is making stuff up._

Yet, he continued to stand there for the rest of the night, his ear straining to hear Artemis as she slept.


End file.
